EDIT: I kid, I kid. It's a good question, I've never heard of this Ministry of Space (is that what inspired the book of the same name?) but I'd sure like to know more. I'm at work, so I ride the information superhighway surreptitiously, but wikipedia keeps returning your book as the only entry under Ministry of Space!

It's been said that the whole United Kingdom was built around a river of liquor...

Anyway--NASA. I'm no where near smart enough to really get into the nitty-gritty of why we haven't got a moon base yet, but from what I've read, it seems like NASA suffers from what basically every agency inside the federal government has--it's too big and bloated for it's own good. While beaucracy is neccesary to make big stuff happen, stuff like keeping an obselete design like the space shuttle for a few decades while seemingly abandoning the International Space Station (whatever happened to that, anyway?), there does seem to be a lot of odd stuff going on, and I don't think it's because the nerds who know this shit (and I'm totally envious over) haven't thought of new ways of throwing shit into space.

I'm no "quantum-thermodynamics guy", but dimensional mining depends on a couple of things;

The scientific community universally acknowledging the existence of other dimensions is a biggie. Then there's the technology to break into an adjacent dimension. Then there's sustaining the tear and hoping we don't have the other one spilling over into ours or vice versa. Then there's the maths involved in breaking in in a location worthy of sustainable mining. Then there's the hope that the inhabitants of the other dimension let us do it.

The technology and research involved in all this would make the entire operation unprofitable, as it's likely we'd just be mining back the stuff we used to get to the other dimension.

I've got to second our landlord's recommendation of DRAGONFLY - it is worth it just to read about sleep deprived cosmonauts trying to joystick a hurtling supply module into the the Mir without being able to see either it or the Mir. Plus Astronaut Mark Foale freaking out after the blazing, hissing aftermath of that exercise. That book is an unrivaled peek into the madness of both major space programs. It will teach you to admire the Russians, that's for sure.

And if putting even more people in space and sending them off to exotic locales is beyond NASA's capabilities, it's certainly beyond those of any existing corporation. Unless any megalomaniac but public-spirited billionaires want to step forward, it's not gonna happen soon.

Isn't this what Elon Musk is up to? There was a feature on him in the first issue of Wired UK and it sounds like his purpose with SpaceX is to acheive these Big Goals and develop actual spacefaring tech. He said something along the lines of "curing cancer will raise the average mortality by a small percentage, being able to leave the planet will raise the life expectancy of the species by thousands of years". idk, I've not got it to hand, but he's the public-spirited megalomaniac you want.

"lonneynerd What happened to The Ministry of Space:It was disbanded after Britain built a successful launcher for 100kg payloads in the seventies - it was the most advanced at the time but the people in charge (the sort of people who think it's funnier to spend the money on porn). Didn't see it as a worthwhile technology. Now the 100kg launcher market is massive (for telecomms) and France are the world leaders. FRANCE.

I'm watching the live in-orbit press conference from STS 125 online right now. When John Grunsfeld was asked what he would tell the President if asked for his opinion on NASA's future, the key point of his response was something along the lines of "We need to get out of Low Earth Orbit and go out there and explore. There's a lot of near earth objects to explore and we need to get on it". during which all 7 members nodded their heads in agreement...